My friend, Basco, and I were really hungry, so we went to eat chicken nuggets (tasty and cheap!). We decided to buy them together to keep the wait time low - after all, a nugget is a nugget. I offered to put $3 into the nugget fund; Basco countered that he would pay $0.12 for each nugget he wanted. I noted that nuggets usually cost more than $0.12 a pop, but Basco assured me that he paid $0.12 per nugget the last time he bought some - 2006 - and that the price of nuggets was uncertain because of an ongoing price war.* I was really hungry and didn’t want to wait (or, frankly, to think too hard about it), so I agreed.
When we got to the fast food place, it turned out that nuggets cost $0.20 apiece. Basco said he wanted 12 nuggets, so I totaled up our nugget fund: my $3 plus Basco’s $1.44 (=$0.12*12) would allow us to buy 22 nuggets ($4.44/$0.20 per). After I put in our order, it dawned on me what a poor deal I had made: Basco got 12 nuggets at $0.12 each; I got 10 nuggets at $0.30 each; Basco paid for less than a third of the tab and got more than half of the nuggets; Basco bought nuggets at 60% of their actual cost, while I paid 150% of the actual cost.**
The moral of the story: don’t split the bill while you are distracted by hunger.
(I will return to the usual wonkery soon ....)
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* http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2015-01-15/burger-wars-the-cheap-chicken-nuggets-phase
** Suppose nuggets would have been $0.15 per. The nugget fund would still have been $4.44, but that would have gotten us 29 nuggets. Basco would get his 12 nuggets at $0.12 apiece; I would get 17 nuggets at $0.18 apiece. 17 nuggets is probably more than I should eat at a sitting.
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